In the Arena
by LeadroftheEmoPenguins
Summary: What if Katniss had realized before the end that the Capitol was not going to let them both live? What happens if she had actually fallen in love with Peeta? What will she do to keep him alive? Read and find out.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Hello everybody. I have been doing NaNoWriMo all this month. And for those of you who do not know what that is it stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to write fifty thousand words in the month of November. I know that I probably will not reach this goal so I started to read the Hunger Games series. And I fell in love. So I decided to write this. I hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Hunger Games.**

Peeta's POV

Katniss and I had just climbed to the top of the cornucopia to safety from those strange mutant mutts. We saw Cato leaning over the side of the cornucopia puking his guts up. It would have been a bit more funny if we weren't about to die. But for a second I saw my opportunity to kill him and end the games right here and now. So I drew the small knife that Katniss had given me days ago and stood on shaky legs. Unfortunately I had forgotten about the cut on my leg for just a split second, and now it was gushing blood like never before. And of course Katniss noticed that as well. She looked up at me with pleading eyes before she spoke, "Peeta I have realized something during these games. I love you so much. You may even rank tied for first with Prim and my mother. And right now you need medical attention that I cannot give you. It can only be given at the Capitol. So I have to do this now before I rethink all of this and become extremely selfish. I love you and take care of my mother and Prim for me." Then she gave me a kiss that was so full of passion that I did not doubt a single word that she had just spoken. And as she took the first few steps away she turned back to me, and she placed the three middle fingers of her hand against her lips then she extended them out to me before turning and sprinting at Cato.

What I had not realized until I saw it shining in the light from the sun was that she had taken the knife from my hand and was now charging at Cato. At first I thought that she was just going to slit his throat and then we could go home together. The two victors from the same district for the first time. And the first tributes from District 12 to win in a very long time. But that was not what happened. She ran at Cato full speed and as they both went crashing down over the lip of the cornucopia I realized that she had not had any intention of stopping. They hit the ground with a thud and the mutts automatically stopped trying to climb the only thing that separated us and ran around to the front.

I crawled slowly to the edge and looked over the lip. I saw Cato with his sword slashing at the mutts, but he just wasn't able to land too many killing blows. The next thing that I saw shocked me. Katniss ran at him again and I thought that she was just going for the mutt that was trying to sneak up behind him, but she was not. She tackled him to the ground. Cato was in shock so when he hit the ground he released the sword and Katniss picked it up and threw it as far away as she could. But since she was still on the ground it didn't go very far. And as Cato recovered he tried to scramble away, but Katniss grabbed his ankle and held him where he was. I heard her yell, "I LOVE YOU PEETA MELLARK!" as the mutts dragged her and Cato into the cornucopia to dispose of them.

I thought that it would be quick. One slash from their mighty and sharp claws and the two would be dead. But as the night went on I could hear them screaming in pain. And after a few hours of hearing her sob and beg for death I began to cry. This wasn't supposed to happen she was not meant to die. We were supposed to be the two victors and live in the Victor's Village and be happy together for the rest of our lives. Then about a half hour later I heard her voice. It was a bit crackly, but that was to be expected. She was talking to Cato. "Cato eat this. It is a berry and it is completely deadly. If you eat it you will be dead before it hits your stomach. All of the rest of them got squished, but end your suffering here and take it. Please." I assumed that he did, because then he spoke, "Katniss Everdeen you are an amazing person. Even after I have tried to kill you multiple times, you still do this for me. I hope that we can be friends on the other side. And I hope that you do not suffer too mu-" and then his voice cut off and I assumed that he was dead. My assumptions were proven correct when moments later the cannon went off. It must have scared the mutts, because all of a sudden Katniss screamed a blood curdling scream. I listened to her scream for what was at least twelve hours and I cried the entire time. Then the cannon went off again and I saw the mutts go running off in the direction of the woods. They didn't make it though. They were half way there when the floor opened up and they fell into a dark hole.

I quickly scrambled off of the cornucopia, and ran inside. But there was no way that I would ever be prepared for what I saw. I saw Cato laying on the ground his clothes in tatters, and a whole slew of gashes all over his body. Then I saw her, the love of my life Katniss Everdeen. She lay on the ground with so many more gashes on her body than Cato's had, and her clothes were the same as his but worse, because she had more cuts. You could see what had happened when the mutts got scared. Her left leg was cut off and there were two other little disks of skin lying on the ground from the rest of the claws on those mutts paws. Her right arm was cut off, but it wasn't as clean as her leg. So it was obvious to me that what happened to her leg had given them inspiration and they had slowly cut off her arm. I took this all in in a matter of seconds before I high tailed it out of there. Just in case the cameras were following me. There was no way that Prim, or anybody else in District 12 for that matter, needed to see that and I knew for a fact that the cameras wouldn't go back in there they would be fixed on me and my reaction. That was when I realized what Katniss must have known for a while. They were never going to let us both win. I just don't understand why she wouldn't let me sacrifice myself for her. And then it sank in the words that she has spoken before she tackled Cato and before she was tortured. She loved me. I knew that in the cave it was just an act to get us food from Haymitch, but now I realized that she really did discover her love for me.

As everything came crashing down on me I heard a whirring sound. I thought that it was the hover craft coming to take away the bodies, but it wasn't it was a helicopter and it lowered a ladder for me to grab onto. And as soon as I was on it there was a gravity field of some sort that kept me on it. I was still wearing the tourniquet that Katniss had put on me days ago and I think that that was the only thing that was keeping me alive right now.

After about an hour I was pulled up onto the helicopter and the first thing that they did was they gave me an anesthetic shot that knocked me out cold.

I woke up what must have been hours later in a room that I did not recognize. I began screaming for Katniss. Then remembered that she was dead, and that only made me scream harder and louder. Something was shot into my veins and once again I was unconscious.

This time it felt much longer and I woke up to see Haymitch. As I tried to get up he grabbed my arm and helped me. I didn't know why I needed his help until I felt how weak my leg had become. I looked down at my leg hoping that it was still there and it was. Haymitch saw me look down and I heard him speak for the first time in a while and his voice was full of raw emotion, "you should be very thankful to that young lady. The doctors said that her experimentation with those different herbs and her patch work were the only thing that saved your leg when you put all of that pressure on it. It staunched the bleeding within minutes." I threw my arms around him and cried into his shoulder. He was shocked at first, but slowly brought his arms up and placed on of his hands on my back and the other behind my head holding me to him. He rubbed my head comfortingly. After I calmed down a bit he pulled away and held me at arm's length.

I had to stay in that room for like another week. It was boring and I spent most of that time unconscious. But I made it through this entire time. I don't know how, but I managed it. And as I got dressed in the simple tuxedo that my stylist set out for me to put on. It was almost mechanical the way I was moving. Then I was waiting to go out onto the stage. All of a sudden I was being put onto a moving plate that lead me out onto the stage. As it I was taken to a comfortable looking chair and sat down. President Snow came out on stage followed by a young boy who carried a crown on a red vinyl pillow. He grabbed the crown and placed it on my head. He gave a speech and he sounded quite happy. Then I was forced to watch as the other tributes died. I hated this the most, but what pissed me off the most was that they showed Katniss tackling Cato off of the cornucopia at least five times. Then they showed the sword bit twice. But I drew the line when they tried to show Katniss' mangled body. They showed Cato's and I knew it was coming, and I only had a few seconds to act. But just as the camera was spinning I took the crown off of my head and threw it as hard as I could at the screen. It went through the screen and stopped the video. Everyone in the crowd and on stage looked at me stunned, but I didn't waste time. I turned to the people on stage and began to yell, "Are you people really that sadistic! That girl up there Katniss Everdeen of District 12 has a family back home. She has a younger sister and a whole bunch of people who love and care for her. None of them need to see her like that. They should all be able to remember her as she was!" And with that I stormed off stage.

After the Victory Banquet I was sent to bed.

In the morning I was dressed in a different tuxedo.

I was sat down on a chair across from Caesar Flickerman on the large stage. He started asking me very vague questions about what happened during the games. But I wasn't into it I just wanted to go home to District 12. But I answered all of his questions with fake enthusiasm. Then he started to talk about Katniss, "so Peeta before the games you admitted your love for one Katniss Everdeen. And she was shocked. Then just before she sacrificed herself for you she admitted her love for you. Did your feelings change towards her during that time?" I wanted to punch him right in the face. "I will always love Katniss and one day I hope to see her again. And I would have happily taken her place so that she could go home to her family." He sat there nodding. "But what about what she did for the District 2 tribute Cato? She gave him that final berry to end his suffering. Why do you think that she did that?" I looked at him as if he had gone insane, "She did that for one reason and one reason only. She is a compassionate person. And if she had the chance to end his suffering I knew as soon as they got dragged away that she would do anything to make sure that he didn't have to suffer." He nodded once again. "Alright Peeta just one more question before we put you on a train and ship you back to District 12. Yesterday at the viewing what was that all about?" "Well like I said yesterday when I did what I did she has a younger sister. Her sister is only twelve this year and should be able to remember her sister as she was and not have to see her like that. And she has plenty of other people who care about her back home and none of them need to see that type of thing." This time I saw in his eyes that he understood what I was saying. "Well thank you Peeta and congratulations on your victory. We hope to see you soon during the Victory Tour."

Later that night I was on a train passing by District 2 talking to Haymitch and Effie. We were scheduled to get home tomorrow night. I couldn't wait to see my family.

We got home an hour later than we anticipated. But we got off the train and were followed by the camera crew. My parents were at the front of the crowd and Katniss' family was at the back. I walked right by my parents without even acknowledging them and walked straight for the Everdeen and Hawthorne families. And I fell to my knees right in front of them. And I cried. I begged them for forgiveness. They had come to see me right before we left for the Capitol and I promised them that I would do everything in my power to protect her. The first of them to move was Prim she knelt down and wrapped her arms around me. She whispered in my ear, "Peeta its ok. She is just too stubborn nothing that you could have done would have helped. And we all thought that the Capital was going to let you both live." When she finished her little speech the rest of them except Gale fell down and hugged me.

I stood up and walked over to Gale. He gave me a look like he was disgusted with me. Then he punched me in the face. "You should have known that the Capitol would never let you both live. They would have made you turn against each other at the end. And maybe if you had just realized that sooner she would still be here!" Then he turned and walked away.

I know that he was just angry, but maybe he was right. Maybe she would still be here. I don't know and I doubt they do either.

It's been two months and since the Victor's village was practically empty I invited the Everdeen's and the Hawthorne's to come live here and they both agreed and they share in my winnings. We split them three ways. I get them during February, May, August, and November. The Everdeen's get during January April, July, and October. And the Hawthorne's get during December, March, June, and September. We had had Katniss' body in style and all of the elaborate parts were funded with the money that I got from the Capitol. We all miss her so much, but we have to be content hoping that we will see her again someday.

Katniss POV

Cato and I were running along the large fluffy cloud chasing each other with swords. We were trying to find out who would have won if we had actually had a fair fight. I had explained everything to him about Peeta. I told him that he would have died if I hadn't sacrificed us. He was mad at first, but he softened up when I cried and told him all about fake loving Peeta and actually falling in love with him.

We had watched him throw his crown through the screen to stop District 12 from seeing my mangled body. And if I were still alive I would have hugged him.

We saw him walk straight to mine and Gale's families after returning and heard Prim comforting him. I wanted to kiss him when he invited them all to live in the Victor's Village and again when he decided to share his rations with them.

I may have used a bit of spirit mumbo jumbo to make sure that Gale knew that it was not Peeta's fault that I died. And to make him see that Peeta was not a bad guy. And they made up. And now Peeta is teaching Gale how to bake in exchange for Gale teaching Peeta how to hunt. And as you can imagine I was not too thrilled about that little arrangement. But now I know that if Peeta is ever thrown back into the arena he will be able to protect himself.

And as I remembered Peeta decorating my grave site I speared Cato through the heart and I won. "Ha Cato I win. I would have won the Hunger Games if the Capitol hadn't sent those dogs!" He chuckled and pulled the sword from his chest and pulled me into his arms. "I know how you feel seeing that. I miss my family too. It is alright to cry. I did when I saw my family burry my body. At least we have each other and we know that we will see them again." He said into my hair as he kissed the top of my head. And we just stood like that for a long time before he pulled away smiling and yelled, "REMATCH!" and swung his sword at me. I had just enough time to jump out of the way and grab my sword. I stood up smiling and laughing at him. He wasn't so bad after he died when he realized that he didn't have to kill you to survive. He was like the big brother I never had.

**A/N: So what do you think? Do you like it leave me a review. I am thinking about writing this in Katniss' POV, but I don't know. And also what do you think of a Bella/ Gale fic. Where Bella ends up going to the arena with Peeta instead of Katniss? Let me know. I love you all BYYYYYEEEEE!**


	2. Katniss' POV

**A/N: Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Here is Katniss' POV of what happened. It had come to my attention that how Katniss went from pretending to love Peeta to actually loving him was lacking in a lot of details so I decided to write this. I hope you like it.**

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately I do not own Hunger Games.**

Katniss POV

Peeta and I were climbing for our lives to try to get to the top of the cornucopia. We were being chased by a bunch of mutated dog things. I don't really know what to call them. But what I do know about them is that they are made with the DNA of the other tributes. I had looked down as we climbed and saw one of the dogs had a 1 on its collar, and its eyes are the same color as Glimmer's eyes were. I just put two and two together and got four. The rest of them have to be the other tributes.

I let Peeta go first; because there was no way that I was going to let him die just because of his leg. And I know at first I was just pretending to be in love with him to survive, but while I was doing what I could for his leg we began to talk. And as we talked I felt myself falling in love with him. Then when he told that story about our first day of school, and how his dad had wanted to marry my mom. I fell head over heels in love with him, and from that point on everything that I have done was to keep him alive.

I looked over to the edge of the cornucopia to see Cato puking. It was really gross. I knew that both Cato and I would have to die before Peeta could get the medical attention that he needed that there was no way that I would be able to provide. I know that the Capitol had said that they would let two tributes live if they were from the same district, but I also know for a fact that that is utter bullshit. They only wanted to pin two people from the same district against each other in the end. And I knew that Peeta still believed all of the crap that was coming out of the mouths of the Capitol.

However I was surprised when Peeta went to stand up wielding the knife that I had given him at least two days ago. I didn't know that he still had that. But that wasn't the point, as soon as he put pressure on his bad leg it began to bleed profusely. That made my decision for me. I walked over to where he had fallen and spoke, "Peeta I have realized something during these games. I love you so much. You may even rank tied for first with Prim and my mother. And right now you need medical attention that I cannot give you. It can only be given at the Capitol. So I have to do this now before I rethink all of this and become extremely selfish. I love you and take care of my mother and Prim for me." Then I gave him a kiss that was so full of passion that there was no way that he could doubt what I was saying. Then I took the knife out of his hands and sprinted off towards where Cato was still hunched over. But before I got too far away from him I turned and placed the three middle fingers of my hand against my hand then extended my hand towards Peeta.

Then I turned back to the task at hand and sprinted at Cato and tackled him off of the Cornucopia. We were swarmed almost instantly. Cato stood up and began to swing at the beasts wildly with his sword, but I got back up and tackled him again. He was in shock and he dropped his sword which I grabbed and threw, but I was still on the ground so it only just went outside of the pack of angry mutant dogs. But then Cato stood up and tried to run, so I grabbed him by the ankle and he hit the ground. The dog things converged on us as soon as he hit the ground. As I was dragged into the cornucopia I saw Peeta looking over the lip of the cornucopia. So I yelled as loud as I Could, "I LOVE YOU PEETA MELLARK!"

Then we were in the cornucopia. And the mutts began to slash at us with their razor sharp claws. I could tell that they were not trying to kill us yet. They were going to torture us first. So I tried my best to stay quiet so that Peeta wasn't hurt by what he heard, but it was hard and I was soon screaming as loud as Cato. The mutts backed off for just a second. So I quickly went in search of my pouch of berries hell bent on ending both of our suffering. But as I opened it and stuck my hand in. All I found was one berry. Now it would have just been simple to eat the berry and end my own suffering. But I just couldn't do it so I held out the berry to him and spoke, "Cato eat this. It is a berry and it is completely deadly. If you eat it you will be dead before it hits your stomach. All of the rest of them got squished, but end your suffering here and take it. Please." he took it and ate it then he spoke, "Katniss Everdeen you are an amazing person. Even after I have tried to kill you multiple times, you still do this for me. I hope that we can be friends on the other side. And I hope that you do not suffer too mu-" and then his voice cut off and he died.

The cannon went off just as one of the mutts went to cut my leg. The cannon must have scared it, because it pushed too hard and my leg got cut clean off. I screamed out and blood went pouring out of what was left of my leg. They continued to cut me for hours. Then they got back to my leg stub and must have found some inspiration there, because they walked back up near my head and began to saw at my arm. After they would saw some they would drag their tongues over the wound, and there must be something in their saliva, because it burned so bad. When it was finally gone they began to cut my body with more force than before. I think that they realized I was close to death so they wanted me to experience as much pain as possible before that point.

And with one final slash down my arm everything went black and I welcomed death, because it meant that Peeta got the medical attention that he needed.

I woke up to the brightest light I had ever seen, and a feeling of weightlessness. It was bliss considering I felt absolutely no pain. And in front of me was Cato, but he looked so much nicer and sweeter because he wasn't trying to kill me. He helped me stand up and then he lead me to the edge of the cloud that we were standing on. There stood Peeta in front of a large crowd of people yelling at President Snow.

Cato and I watched Peeta from our cloud as he begged my family for forgiveness. And we watched as he went on his Victory Tour. We watched over him during the third Quarter Quell. And we watched as he lead a successful rebellion against the Capitol. And we welcomed Gale onto our cloud as he died on the front lines of the rebellion along with almost all of his family. Only one of his brothers, the one that was only one year older than Prim, lived.

Then fifteen years later on August 23 I watched my baby sister get married to Gale's younger brothers. Then two years after that on November 17 I watched her give birth to my niece, Katniss Rose Hawthorne. I cried tears of joy at that. Then I watched as my mother died at the age of seventy- five. Her last words to Prim as she cried at my mother's bedside were, "do not cry baby for I get to see Katniss again an one day we will meet again. However I hope that is not for a long time." Then she closed her eyes and died. She appeared on our little cloud the woman that she was when my father died and he came running over and grabbed her into his arms. Oh yea did I forget to mention that within hours of my death Cato and I found my father? Oops silly me.

We all watched as not one month after my mother's death Haymitch died from alcohol poisoning. Our little family here was steadily growing.

And at the age of eighty nine we all saw Peeta die. And he was in my arms within seconds. His lips on mine within one minute. The little Hawthorne family (Prim, Katniss, and Gale's brother) came and joined us days later after their house caught fire and they got stuck inside of it. We were all here together. And we were a family. All of us were finally together again.

**A/N: Well what do you think of Katniss' POV? I know it wasn't as long, but I didn't really have too much to write about from her POV. She died so she couldn't very well do any of the things that Peeta did. Anyway what do you guys think of a Bella and Gale slash fic? Review and let me know.**


	3. petition

The administrators of are as of June 4th going to be taking down Fics that have lemons or have extreme violence. Now I don't know about you but I think thats stupid. There are many wonderful fics that only have one or two lemons in them yet the plot itself is awesome! You can't just take down a 100,000+ word fic just because it has a lemon in a chapter that is only 1000 words long. Now I urge you all to read the petition below, sign it, and repost this to your own fics. Hopefully if we make enough noise everything will return to normal. Thank you.

Greetings to the fine folk that moderate our site.

Myself, along with many, have been writing and posting on your fine site for years now, some of the better examples of up and coming writers out there are now suddenly finding some of the stories we've come to love at risk of being removed without the chance to even rectify our errors.

For some, that means the permanent loss of a story. While I don't have anything that I believe violates your terms of use, there are those out there that are never able to recover a story in its original form, this is something I find to be almost worthy of a legal action, as while we cannot claim ownership of a character, the stories are OURS and simply destroying them is something that is inexcusable.

It's quite easy to simply add an MA rating, additional filters or even a simple requirement for a free membership to read the stories presented here, and would cut down on hateful anonymous reviews and posts at the same time, so I have to question as to why such a thing, in all this time, simply wasn't added.

If you're worried about falsification of a registration then have an appropriate disclaimer and then there can be no dispute, you took your steps and the PARENTS didn't monitor their children, if that is even your concern. If it is more of a personal view or desire then please at least let people know and give them a chance to remove a story that you and yours find offensive, most people on the site are actually rather cordial when it comes to such requests.

While I cannot say for sure if this letter will even reach those that may be willing to listen, of if it's more akin to a wide spectrum purge in preparation for something bigger, please understand that you are going to be looseing a LARGE number of your writers, and thus your income from a lack of readers if there is not some level of action taken to help with this situation.

For those that may agree with this, please feel free to sign on and send this to the support server, maybe we can get some movement on this.

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